Connor stared at the door watching as it continued to fail under the onslaught from the creature on the other side. "Not much longer," he whispered to himself as he reached for the pin on the grenade. Another loud thud and the door gave way flying across the rooftop, slamming into Connor driving him to the asphalt surface. The door, steel in make, landed on top of him pinning him down, trapping him in the path of the emerging zombie.
Jameson looked back when he heard the crash and saw his brother pinned under the door. "Connor!" he yelled out grabbing the grenade from his pocket.
Looking over at his brother, "Stay back," he yelled while struggling to free himself. The zombie was moving toward him, blood dripping from its gaping mouth, the white eyes fixed on him. Pulling his one hand free he pulled out the grenade pushing his thumb through the ring on the pin, preparing to pull it. The zombie leapt toward him landing heavily on the steel door that covered him causing all the air in his lungs to burst forth under the added weight. As the creature reared back letting out a gurgling roar, he pulled the pin and thrust his hand upward pushing the grenade into its open mouth cutting off the roar.
"No," Jameson yelled out. Both he and Sara watched in horror as Connor held the grenade in place while the creature struggled to dislodge it.
"I love you, brother; keep safe," Connor yelled out as the grenade exploded sending its deadly shrapnel through the air, ripping the head off the creature sending it to the ground.
Running across the roof Jameson approached his brother and could see that the device had done its work. The zombie's headless body was lying near the entry blown clear of Connor, but his brother had also suffered a fatal blow from the grenade. Pushing the heavy door off he knelt down next to his body reaching in to check for any sign of life but finding none. A tear rolled down his cheek as he gazed down at his older brother devastated that he had sacrificed himself to save them.
Sara felt for him knowing how brave Connor had been, doing what he could to protect them all from the onslaught, but they were not out of danger yet, and she needed Jameson back in the fight. "Hey, I need your help over here. I only have one shot left," she called out to him.
Still staring down at his dead brother Jameson ignored Sara at first, but then the reality of their situation returned. Standing up he turned back to her and was about to sprint back when he heard the telltale moaning come from the stairwell. Looking into the dark opening he could tell by the sound alone that there were several of the creatures heading up, and he too was almost out of ammo.
Turning back to Sara he tossed his gun to her, "Use this; I need to take care of the ones coming up this way," holding up the remaining grenade.
She caught the gun and quickly turned her attention back to the ladder shooting a zombie that was on the final rung sending it falling back to the ground below. They were in a lot of trouble here, and if the choppers did not arrive soon, she knew they were going to all end up like Hobart and Connor. Looking down she fired another shot sending another of the creatures back down. Thankfully this time it took several of them with it.
Jameson approached the entry as the moans grew louder, and he knew they were closing in on the top. He peered in through the doorway and could see the creatures starting up the final set of steps. Taking a deep breath he stepped back away from the door grabbing the grenade pin and pulling. Counting in his head he waited two seconds and then tossed the grenade inside the door before diving to the rooftop. The explosion tore through the top two flights of steps blowing apart several of the dead, blocking the way for the zombies that survived the blast.
With his ears ringing from the sound, Jameson climbed to his feet just in time to come face to face with an emerging zombie that had been in front of the blast. The creature reached out grabbing him by the arm, pulling him in toward its open mouth. Reaching behind him Jameson grabbed onto a long knife on his hip. Pulling it from its sheath he drove it up into the underside of the zombie's open mouth. The blade pierced the neck, going up through the mouth and into the brain, ending the creature's existence. Pulling his knife out he let the body fall to the ground as he prepared for the possibility of another one of the things emerging from the stairwell but was annoyed to see none appear. The anger he felt losing his brother to these things coursed through his body, and all he wanted to do now was kill as many of them as he possibly could. "Come on, you bastards, come up and get me!" he yelled down into the dark stairwell.
Looking back Sara could see him standing at the opening and the dead zombie lying next to him in a pool of coagulating blood. "Jameson, are you alright?" she called out to him.
Sara's voice cut through the incredible anger he felt for the zombies bringing him back from the edge. He turned to her and saw the concern on her face, which caused him to step back away from the doorway. "Yeah, I'm fine. How's it looking over there?"
She knew they were in trouble, but she waited to tell him making sure he was completely back with her. Seeing him take a deep breath she passed along the bad news. "I have two rounds left, and that sure as hell isn't going to be enough."
CHAPTER 19 – RESCUE
He was about to sprint across the short distance to her when they heard the sound of approaching helicopters in the distance. Spinning around he started searching the night sky looking for choppers and their way out of this mess.
"Over there," Munroe yelled pointing in the distance to the approaching Blackhawks.
Sara was about to let out a cheer when a hand grabbed onto her and started to pull her toward the edge of the roof. "Help," she yelled out as she struggled against the zombie.
Hearing the call for help Jameson ran to help her just as the zombie lunged toward her arm with its open mouth. Reaching out he pushed the creature's head away from her arm just in time as it bit down but came up empty in its attempt. Instead of knifing the thing he kicked the creature in the face with everything he had sending it toppling off the edge of the roof, tumbling down to the ground below. Looking at Sara, "Are you alright? Did it get you at all?"
She shook her head as she fought to keep it together knowing just how close she had come to a fatal bite. "I…I'm fine, thank you," she whispered. Reaching out she latched onto Jameson just as the emotions got the better of her, and her body began to tremble.
"It's alright, Sara, help is coming, and we will be getting away from here shortly," he whispered into her ear as the helicopters grew closer.
Another zombie emerged at the top of the ladder quickly climbing over the edge of the roof, closely followed by two others. Jameson let go of Sara and was about to take on the first of the them when they started to come out of the stairwell, finally being able to navigate over the pile of dead lying in their path. Reaching down he grabbed Munroe pulling him to his feet and pushing him out of the way as they backed away from the dead.
"Now what are we going to do?" Munroe asked seeing that they were sadly outnumbered and with the exception of the knife, unarmed. "Those helicopters are going to get here just in time to watch us become dinner."
Jameson was about to lunge at the closest of the creatures when the zombie's head exploded from the impact of a high caliber bullet. Turning up to the choppers he saw several soldiers hanging off the side rail, firing down at the throng of the dead. Grabbing Sara by the arm he pulled her back as far away from the approaching dead that he could, keeping them clear as the soldiers rained down gunfire on the approaching horde.
In the chaos on the rooftop, Munroe ran from the dead but ended up cut off from the other two as more and more of the creatures appeared. He saw the others moving back toward a descending chopper, and knew he was in trouble.
Jameson saw the doctor at the far end of the roof and knew he was going to have to go get him. Looking at Sara he told her, "Keep moving away from them. I need to go get that idiot. What he knows about this is the only way we will figure out how to fix this mess."
Sara nodded to him even though she did not want to let him go, but she knew he was right. M
unroe was the key, and they needed him alive. She watched as he ran forward pushing zombies out of the way, quickly making his way to where Munroe hid. The doctor had been a problem since they found him, and even though he may have the knowledge to resolve the outbreak, she had no problem with his own creations making a meal out of him. She prayed that Jameson would make it to him safely vowing that she would personally kill Munroe if anything happened to him.
One of the helicopters came to a low hover just above the roof allowing several heavily armed soldiers to hop out and continue their assault on the dead. Sara watched as they approached her with one of them grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back toward the Blackhawk. "Wait; I can't go without Jameson," she yelled over the loud rotor.
"The others will get to him and the doctor. I need to get you to safety," a muffled female voice told her. The soldier completely dressed in heavy black body armor along with a black helmet and dark face shield pulled at her again trying to get her to follow.
Reluctantly she followed the soldier heading back toward the hovering helicopter, looking back to see where Jameson was and if he was safe. Turning to the soldier, "You have to save him. I will go back to the helicopter on my own. Please go help them."
"Alright, but don't stop; get back to the ship right away," the soldier replied before she headed off to join the melee.
Continuing toward the helicopter she kept looking back, praying that they would be able to get to Jameson and save him. Another soldier was standing near the hovering chopper waving for her to climb aboard, but she hesitated wanting to wait for the others to get there. The female soldier that had joined the fight ran into a large mass of dead, and as much as she fought to get away, they quickly overpowered her as the others around them moved in for a piece of the woman. Sara cringed as she watched the zombies begin to feast on the screaming soldier wishing she could do something for her, but with the loss of the woman came an opening for the others. The fresh kill brought the hungry dead flocking toward the warm body trying desperately to get a piece for themselves, which gave the others the break they needed to get back to the chopper.
Jameson closely followed the soldiers as they worked their way back toward the Blackhawk pushing Munroe ahead of him. The doctor had put him in another bad spot with his actions, and this annoyed him a great deal forcing him to fight the urge to shove the man into the mass of dead instead of bringing him to safety.
Several more gunshots were fired from the other chopper, which helped clear the pathway for them. Dead were now emerging from every possible access point, making the rooftop a sea of zombies, all craving the warm living flesh of the few people that remained.
"Come on, hurry," Sara yelled as the creatures returned their attention away from their fresh kill and back to the remaining living that sprinted by. Turning to the soldier next to her, "Give me a gun," sticking her hand out to him.
The man looked at her briefly and then to the mass of dead before quickly handing her his sidearm. The zombies were now heading toward them following Jameson and the others. Sara opened fire on the horde while the soldiers on the other helicopter did their best to protect the survivors and soldiers by dropping as many of the dead as they could.
"Get on the helicopter," the soldier told Sara continuing to fire into the approaching dead. He moved to the side as the others made it back pushing Munroe onto the Blackhawk closely followed by the others. The last of the soldiers climbed onto the chopper just as the dead made it to them clawing at the living humans inside, trying one last time to get the flesh they desired.
"Get us out of here," Munroe yelled as one of the zombies grabbed onto his foot.
The soldier next to him used the butt end of his AR-15 to knock the creature free pushing it off the skid of the helicopter as it gained altitude. They all looked out of the open door down onto the now full rooftop and were amazed at how many zombies were below. As the Blackhawk turned, they got a good view of Appleton now filled with the living dead moving slowly toward the facility that they had just vacated.
Sitting back in his seat Jameson looked back at the building quietly saying goodbye to his brother who had given his life trying to protect them. He was a hero to him, and he vowed to fight on for him and do whatever he could to make sure he did not die in vain. Turning to the soldier next to him, "Thank you for coming to get us; it was getting close up there. How far has this spread?" he asked. Reaching down he grabbed Sara's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze as he waited for the man's reply.
"It's everywhere," the young man replied pulling off his mask. He stared out the open door looking down upon the thousands of dead that surrounded the building they had just left and shook his head in disbelief.
"How far is the base from here?"
"It's about an hour flight time from here. Luckily, for you, we were only a few towns over checking on the level of the spread when we got the call to come and pick you up. The general said you had something of major importance with you. What is it?"
Jameson pointed over at Munroe, "Him. This is the man responsible for the outbreak, and hopefully he can come up with a way of stopping it."
The soldier nodded to Jameson before grabbing a headset from the seat next to him. "Command, this is Blackhawk one-zero. We are inbound with the package: three total survivors. ETA to base five-five, one-zero out." Pulling off the headset he looked over at Sara and then back to Jameson, "How was it down there?"
"It was bad," pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts as the image of Connor entered his mind. "We lost some good people, including my brother."
Lowering his head the soldier closed his eyes for a moment while he thought about the soldiers from his platoon that he had recently lost. "I feel for you. We lost five at the place we just left to come and get you." The town they had come from was crawling with the dead, and the creatures swarmed his team shortly after arriving on site. "It was brutal. There had to be thousands of them and they came out of everywhere just after we set down, outnumbering us within seconds. If it hadn't been for the other chopper that we kept airborne, none of us would have made it out of there alive."
Feeling Sara lean into him and place her head on his shoulder, Jameson took hold of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before leaning back in his seat, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
CHAPTER 20 – DEAD AMONG US
The motion of the chopper relaxed the pair enough to sleep for the first time in what seemed like days until they woke to yelling and gunfire. Jameson sat up in his seat trying to rub the sleep from his weary eyes while Sara seemed to shrink back in her seat almost as if she were trying to hide from an unknown assailant. Looking out the open door he saw the soldier behind the heavy machine gun raining down bullets on an enormous gathering of dead below.
"Keep circling," the soldier yelled to the pilot, "the LZ is completely overrun."
"What's going on?" Jameson yelled out to the man trying to get his attention over the roar of the heavy weapon.
Without taking his eyes off the enemy below, he replied, "The base perimeter has been breached, and the dead are flowing in." Pointing down at the sea of bodies below, "That was our landing spot, and I don't think that is an option any longer." Returning his attention to the situation at hand he continued firing the machine gun as he tried calling the base. "Blackhawk one-zero to command, General Miles, do you copy?" He tried a few more times before giving up. "I think we are on our own," he yelled to the pilot.
The pilot, a younger woman, looked back to the soldier, "Then we are out of here. I need to find a spot to refuel, soon."
Jameson heard the exchange between the pair and quickly jumped in. "Hey, there was a small airport not too far from a secure compound we were staying at; maybe you can refuel there."
The young woman looked back at him, "Where is it? We only have another hour of fuel before we are out."
He passed along the approximate location of the airport and their compound hoping that it was not far from where
they were. "The airport is a small one, and there are only a few towns around it, so we may not run into too many of those things."
The pilot entered the coordinates into the navigation computer and quickly adjusted their course before passing along their new destination to the other Blackhawk. Looking back at Jameson, "This is going to be close, and if that place is full of them," pointing down at the dead, "then we are screwed."
Jameson nodded to her that he understood turning his attention to the other chopper that had turned to follow. The compound was quite a distance from where they were, and he hoped they had enough fuel to make the trip. He gazed over at Sara and saw that she was once again sound asleep, so he pulled off his coat and gently placed it over her hoping not to wake her. Turning to the open door he watched the scenery pass beneath them, and he wondered what the world was going to come to. People everywhere were falling victim to the dead, and safe places for the living to survive were becoming scarce. He did not know about the rest of the country or the world, but around here the dead badly outnumbered the living, so survival was becoming more difficult with each passing day.
"Ouch, this thing looks infected," muttered the soldier across from him.
He was slowly changing the dressing on a wound on his arm, and to Jameson's surprise, it looked a lot like a bite. "How were you wounded?" he asked scanning the young man's face, searching for signs of the coming change.
"One of those damn things bit me back on the roof." Wrapping his arm in fresh gauze he taped the makeshift bandage closed and looked up at Jameson.
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